BALTIMORE — Most consumers are planning to do their holiday shopping online, according to the National Retail Federation, so you may not be surprised to see a text or email from a shipping service with details about a delivery.
Scammers are banking on shoppers wanting to know the status of an order and tricking them into giving up personal or payment information with fake shipping notifications.
It happened during our interview with AARP.
“Are you kidding me?” asked Karen Morgan, Executive Council Member with AARP Maryland.
The text claimed there was a delivery issue that needed to be fixed right away.
“’Enter the link in your browser.’ Wrong. ‘Please confirm your address within 12 hours,’ or what?” Morgan commented. “And the address USPSBAAA, what the heck is BAAA? There's no such thing. That's not a USPS address. That's totally scam.”
And it’s a successful one among unsuspecting shoppers who want their packages delivered on time and are willing to provide any information to do so.
“This has happened to me, you know. I've gotten a text message saying we can't deliver your package, please confirm your address. And the first time I saw it, I was about to do that when I realized I'm not getting a package. I'm not expecting a package. What's this about? And then by the second time I'm like, you know, I'm pretty sure the post office knows where I live,” said Morgan.
Postal Inspector Keith Nusbaum with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service helps investigate these fake notifications.
“So the phishing texts that we're seeing are consistent with a link being sent with a package that is undeliverable. The thing to remember about that is the Postal Service will never reach out directly and provide a link, especially for you to click on,” Nusbaum said.
And he added that you'll never have to pay a re-delivery fee.
“They're looking to get your personal identifiable information, they're looking for your name, your address your credit card numbers, so that they can steal that information,” said Nusbaum.
Aside from shipping carriers, Amazon impersonators are also popular. These links take you to a log-in page resembling Amazon's website. The goal is to steal your password, so they can take over the account, and change the email and shipping address while using your payment information.
An easy way to stay organized is to create a spreadsheet then cut and paste tracking information with a brief description so all of your order details are in one place.
Shoppers can sign up for USPS Informed Delivery to get updates on incoming mail and packages.
The Shopify app also helps you see the status of all of your orders.
Or move confirmation emails to a separate folder in case you have questions about the status of any of your shipments.
You can also forward any suspicious texts to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to 7726 or send an email to spam@uspis.gov.
